Lyric for a day like today

Imagine every spoken word
as part of a very large scaffold
that when we hear “hold” and “please”
steel decks, posts and leveling jacks
shift this way and that
and from all the words repeated
— everyday the same —
the shape of the city emerges

.

Imagine this city as the external
machination of what we think
which is what we say
cranes swivel, tunnels get built
businesses fold, new ones thrive
restaurants open, schools close
we speak the city and it becomes
a creation assured by words

.

Yet along the avenues nothing changes
dogs still bark across fences
sisters still hold grief
and laughter in their cupped hands
unrevised lexicons frame
the structures that support us
some try, and do, use an alternate syntax
but lateral loads resist

.

We talk the city
as we boast so is the map drawn
we make and discard, taste and chew
forks clink against fine porcelain
hope shoots from shadows
roses push past thorns
after rain a rainbow, in its afterglow
unbearable things both dwindle and grow